Quantitative comparison between the effective energy utilization efficiency of triboelectric nanogenerator and electromagnetic generator post power management

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is an energy technology that produces an output of high voltage but low current, and its output power is proportional to operation frequency (f). While the electromagnetic generator (EMG) gives an output of high current but low voltage, and its output power is proportional f2. Since both TENG and EMG gives an alternating current (AC), which has to be rectified into direct current (DC) for practical use. With considering the different degree of voltage and power losses at the rectification circuit owing to the threshold operation voltage of a diode, this is the first quantitative comparison between the effective energy utilization efficiency of TENG and EMG. The results demonstrate that the frequency range in which the maximum peak power of TENG outperforms EMG is expanded after rectification due to the more severe power loss of EMG than that of TENG. Besides, the average power loss rate of TENG is consistently lower than that of EMG, and it is especially obvious at low frequencies. Moreover, the energy utilization efficiency of TENG is always superior to that of EMG after rectification, with a maximum of 98.84 % for TENG while only 66.36 % for EMG. This study reveals that the loss caused by the rectification circuit of TENG is much lower than that of EMG, which lays a solid foundation for the applications of DC-TENG.